Double Struck
by Honeybeemeadows
Summary: I found her on top of a mountain. And I wasn't even trying.
1. Chapter 1

**One:**

**EL DIENTE**

* * *

I picked El Diente because it was as far away as I could possibly get.

Four hours down the highway, two hours up a dirt road. Twelve miles of winding foot trail and that was just to the base. Then, there was a damn near treacherous climb to the peak. Rough cut rock newly erupted, unclaimed wilderness flopped out on all sides for as far as the eye could see. Mile upon monolithic mile of savage, undisciplined nature and little tiny me, smack in the middle of an unbroken run of prehistoric rock.

It seemed like a tasteful amount of distance to put between myself and society.

The slow-rising sun was only just beginning to stain the skyline pale yellow and powdered purple, not a single cloud in sight. I had six hours before the midday storms started to roll in, reliable like clockwork. Six hours to get myself up, and back down that mountain because this high up, those storms still dumped snow.

Even in June.

"Go on, boy. Let's get up there." I gave Moose the go ahead and he was off like a shot, nose to the ground as he romped straight through the underbrush. He was a tracker by blood and, even though we weren't working, he couldn't ignore his nose. Every once in awhile I'd catch a glimpse of black and dusty red fur through the trees, or get the echo of his excited bark when he found something dead to play with. He'd come bounding out of the forest to drop his latest treasure at my feet with an expectant face and I would disappointed him when I didn't pocket his bleeding bunnies. Or his particular preference, the long-deceased bodies of bleeding bunnies.

Dead things aside, the dog was easy company. There were only four things that mattered to him in the world and he knew where all of those things were at any given moment.

His food bowl. His bed. His bone. _Me_.

I trudged after him, reminding myself not to rush, deliberately slowing my footsteps. The high country had been getting rain while the valleys baked to a crisp below, everything lush and green up here. The undergrowth had gone enormous in its effort to catch the sunlight, nature blooming in a mighty rush to claim earthen real estate. There were mushrooms of every shape, size and color, sprouting patches of honey brown and rusted red.

Columbines in pale blue.

Indian paintbrush in blistered crimson.

The only noise, other than Moose, were the aspens whispering to each other over my head.

Climbing mountains is such peaceful, solitary work. I was no good in civilized reality.

My last trip to town had almost done me in. Another epic meltdown, this time in the library. Little Mrs. Cope looking at me like I was either dense or dying when I came-to from my manic rush through every misplaced book in that giant misshelved library, and there were a _lot_ of them.

467 to be exact.

I felt dizzy and sick when I finally landed back in my body.

After every public fiasco, I crossed another fourteener off my list. Another burning moment of paralyzed pain alleviated by another peak ascent. Another bone jarring trek toward the sky. Another last ditch effort to defy drowning, floundering toward the sun with useless heavy limbs as though I could get high enough to break the surface and just breathe . . .

I was running out of mountains to climb.

It took an hour to reach the scree fields, a lightning-struck tree standing guard at the edge of the forest. I fell into a slow, consistent plod, the switchback climb up the north face turning into a string of one million tedious footsteps in front of another. The wind-rubbed scree eventually turned into fields of freshly torn rock, sharp and nearly black. Any plants that survived up here did it by sheer will alone, clinging to the meager spots of earth and blown forever sideways. I was traversing the saddle, a narrow ridge bordered on each side by a thousand foot drop, when Moose hesitated. He looked back at me with his scruff standing upright, a frantic bark in his throat.

_That_ bark. It had been so long since I'd heard him make that particular sound, I was still wondering what he could possibly mean by it when I got a full body flash of her.

_Like a wrecking ball._

_Like a meteor._

My knees hit the trail, then my palms. Fingers clutching dust. Lungs choking on blistering hot air. My head tried to turn itself inside out, eyes glued to the shimmery silhouette of a girl standing far off in the distance. Barely an inch tall and blurred around the edges before she jumped from light years away to impossibly close, from miles to the microscopic level in a single, tripwire heartbeat.

Shoved right up in my face, underneath my skin.

I could feel her, _taste_ her, cell to cell for one solid instant.

I fought down the urge to black out and focused my eyes on the dirt, gulping down the wild spin of the faraway horizon on either side, breaking out into a sweat. I might as well be wrist-deep in the sun, rocks burning, heat flooding off the peak in a thick eruption of molten fire. It churned down the slippery slope, a pyroclastic flow of unearthly heat and scorching acid air as the mountain twisted itself into a spectre of its former glory.

A proverbial volcano.

_Fuck._

There was someone up there.

* * *

**All standards apply:**

**No copyright infringement intended:** I don't own these characters, I just do weird shit to them.

**Hadley fixes my mistakes:** but I fuck with it right up until posting, so any grammatical weirdness belongs to me.

**Nothing:** and I mean _nothing_, is as it seems.


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO:**

**PRIME TARGETS**

* * *

I should have turned around.


	3. Chapter 3

**THREE**

**THIRTEEN THOUSAND STEPS**

* * *

By the time we reached the treeline she was asleep, lulled by the steady rock of my footsteps, gone limp and warm and peaceful.


	4. Chapter 4

**FOUR**

**SPILL IT, SUGAR**

* * *

She spread herself out across the front seat with her head in my lap most of the drive.


	5. Chapter 5

**FIVE**

**NEXT TIME, SHOES**

* * *

Jasper showed up during the hottest part of the afternoon, pulling in behind my truck, trailing a gigantic a cloud of dust.


	6. Chapter 6

**SIX**

**LIGHTNING STRUCK**

* * *

"Want to get out of here for a while? We can take Moose for a walk."


	7. Chapter 7

**SEVEN**

**JESUS, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?**

* * *

She was cooking when he called.


	8. Chapter 8

**EIGHT**

**YOU DIDN'T LOSE IT, YOU THREW IT AWAY**

* * *

She cornered me as soon as I got back.


	9. Chapter 9

**NINE**

**TO HELL AND BACK IN THE GROCERY STORE**

* * *

We hadn't spoken a word to each other since she told me her name.


	10. Chapter 10

**TEN**

**THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FOR DESSERT**

* * *

"You can't be serious."


	11. Chapter 11

**ELEVEN**

**GIRL HAD NERVE**

* * *

"What does that mean?"


End file.
